172 new LPG agencies soon: Ramzan

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 15: Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) Department, Ch Mohammad Ramzan today said that LPG gas agencies would be opened in all leftover blocks in the State shortly while as issue of increasing the cap on subsidized cylinders from 9 to 12 has already been taken up with the Union Government.
Replying to a question by National Conference MLA and former Minister, Abdul Gani Malik and supplementaries of various Members in the Lower House, the Minister said that Government has decided to open 172 new LPG agencies across the State and advertisement in this regard will be issued within days, adding “all those blocks where there is no gas agency would receive the priority”.
The Minister said, “home delivery of LPG gas has been started in Jammu and Srinagar from March 5, 2013, which was the cut-off date, and has yielded fruitful results at the ground level”, adding “in Jammu region 87.71% home delivery has been ensured since March 5, 2013”.
Earlier, in reply to the main question, the Minister said, “crisis on account of availability of LPG in the State had emerged after September 13, 2012 due to capping of subsidized domestic LPG cylinder to six in a year and blocking of un-verified connections of such consumers, who had not completed their KYC formalities. However, the rush of KYC verification has settled down now and presently there is no crisis”.
Balwant Singh Mankotia, Prof Chaman Lal, Ashok Kumar, Krishan Chander Bhagat, Ajaz Ahmed Jan, Irfan Shah, Javid Ahmed Dar, Hakim Mohammad Yasin, Jugal Kishore, Harshdev Singh, Er Abdul Rashid and Peer Afaq raised supplementaries to the main question and demanded opening of more LPG gas agencies in their constituencies.